Combining bees

[montauk170]

I have a SMALL colony that I collected through a cutout. Could have been from a multiple swarm. They are doing good but the bee population is growing slow and I'm afraid the worker bees would die before the new brood emerges and end up with nothing. If I trap or get a swarm of bees, queenless, and do the newspaper combine but the new bees are say 2X in population than the current small colony I have, would they kill the current bees that are in there or it would be ok?

[riverrat]

it should work. The news paper combine gives them time to get there scents mixed together so they wont fight. If there was any question you could cage the queen add it to the queenless colony then shake the few bees out that you have in the other hive on the ground near the hive and add what little brood you have to the queenless hive. But I think the news paper would be the way to go with the small hive on the bottom since it hads the brood

[annette]

I've done 2 combines already this season with the newspaper and they both went well. Spray sugar syrup onto the newspaper a bit to mask the smell. I also spray both hives with the sugar syrup. I use 1 single sheet of newspaper and make a few slits. Make sure you give the hive on top an upper entrance.

Good Luck
Annette

[annette]

I've done 2 combines already this season with the newspaper and they both went well. Spray sugar syrup onto the newspaper a bit to mask the smell. I also spray both hives with the sugar syrup. I use 1 single sheet of newspaper and make a few slits. Make sure you give the hive on top an upper entrance.

Good Luck
Annette